Death of a Salesman Summary of Chunk 2
by
Arthur Miller
Chunk two begins as a transition from Willy standing in the kitchen having a flashback as an observer sees it, to the flashback as Willy sees and lives it. The reader is taken back to Biff's senior year of high school. Biff is the captain of the football team, and he is full of verve and life, much different from the drained and confused present-day Biff.
Biff is in the yard practicing his passing with a new football. Willy asks him where he got it. "… I borrowed it from the locker room," he says. All of the Loman's are good with their euphemistic view of situations. "Coach'll probably congratulate you on your initiative!" replies Willy.
Willy and Linda talk and Willy tells Linda that he feels he is foolish to look at, and this is possibly why he doesn't sell as much merchandise as he could. During this scene, Willy has a brief remembrance of a woman he has had an affair with. She is a young woman who he meets on his sales trips, and he gives her Linda's stockings as presents.
As Willy comes out of these guilty thoughts, Bernard, the next-door neighbor boy, comes in and tells Willy that Biff had better start studying for the Regents or he will not graduate from high school. Willy goes into a rage and begins storming around looking for Biff. As Willy paces around the house ranting, the scene switches back to present-day and Hap comes downstairs and discovers his father talking to no one.